Apotheosis
Apotheosis is an episode of the 2009 TV series Caprica. Plot In the aftermath of her failed attempt to kill the Graystones, Sister Clarice Willow and Olaf are forced to walk back through the streets alone, with their husband Nestor dead. He is unwilling to take Clarice back to the Willow residence to get her computer data, as the police will know where to find them. They are approached by Agent Gara Singh, the GDD director. He finally reveals himself to Clarice as 'Arvo', the man she has been talking to who claimed to have a contact in the GDD. He comes with them to their house to get the relevant computer data. He is keeping tabs on the Graystones should they try to alert the police, and any uses of "Graystone" or "Atlas Arena" in reports will be flagged, should they have found out about the planned terrorist attack. While this may blow his cover, with only 14 hours left for the attack he expects to be off-world before anyone notices. He reminds Clarice the GDD has 4712 agents under his command, and if he gave them 'evidence' the Maglev bombing was committed by Zoe Graystone under orders from Daniel and Amanda. At the Graystone residence, the company is privately investigating the residence, and Cyrus Xander won't call the police until the lawyers are brought in. Photos are taken of Nestor's body for evidence, and technicians figure out how the Willows broke in. A special team will obtain the U-87. Amanda enters V-World to talk with Zoe-A, hoping to get information on Clarice. Zoe-A has gaps in her memory as part of Zoe's design to both make her an individual as well as keep her from knowing Clarice's goal. Amanda re-rezzes, her Holoband ripped off by Singh as the GDD take over the investigation and place the Graystones under arrest. He presents a document casually left in the house showing a list of apparent STO contacts as proof of their guilt, confirming to Amanda what Agent Jordan Duram said about the GDD being compromised. Xander takes out a gun on Singh to help the Graystones escape. Singh lets the two go for now, and warns Xander that he will personally push the switch when he is executed alongside them. The Graystones escape in a private ship. Act 1 Joseph's family and friends meet up after Willie's death. They are pledged outside protection should anything bad happen. There is a knock at the door, and Fidelia Fazekas and the Guatrau himself enter. They are not here to fight, with the Guatrau offering to call off the hit on Joseph and Sam over Willie. Sam rejects the other and forces Fidelia's head against a table, threatening to shoot her. Joseph has him stop, and lets her sit down, with Ruth calling her a child killer as she passes. Fidelia offers to send money and robots to the Tauron rebels like he wanted, accusing her father of being too set in his ways. The Graystones touch down in Orpheus Park on Amanda's instructions to recover the stolen Holoband. Letting the Graystone employee go, they are stuck in the park untraceable. He finds the Holoband and plays the program saved on it - the Caprica Buccaneers against the Delphi Legion game. He sees Monotheist NPCs salute one another and detonate it before appearing in another setting, proclaiming to have been saved. He realises this relates to Zoe's avatar program, and that the only scheduled game between the two is in eight hours time. Act 2 The Graystones make it to Atlas Arena soon enough, but Amanda's attempts to report the bomb are seemingly ignored. Elsewhere, a GDD staff member catches up with Director Singh and reports that the police are aware of the bomb threat. Under orders, he is to tell the police the GDD will handle the investigation. The Guatrau enters V-World to meet with Joseph digitally rather than in person, finding himself in a recreation of Goldie's. For being responsible in the death of his only remaining child, he warns it will be difficult to make it up to him. The Gautrau begins choking, to his confusion. In the real world, Sam is choking him with a plastic bag, he, Joseph and the others being in the next room the entire time. Joseph puts pills down his mouth so he dies of poisoning instead. The assassination is entirely allowed by the Ha'la'tha in the room due to the severity Willie's death wrought them, and Fidelia succeeds him. Joseph acknowledges her authority as the Guatrau, which the others do not object. Act 3 At the Willow residence, Clarice opts out of the suicide bombing, angering Olaf who feels she is cheating out. He doesn't care for the avatar program and his avatar's immortality, and has faith the One True God will save his real soul. The Graystones take a cab ride to their next location. With the news reports of the manhunt on them on a TV in the cab, Daniel has the driver change the channel in case he recognises them. This same report also gets Zoe-A's attention, watching the virtual TV at home, and she gets ready to help them out. Daniel and Amanda track down their target, Drew. Daniel recruits him to head into the R&D lab and take his hard-drive to a restricted terminal. Inputting the code Y-R-25-Zeta-Theta-Epsilon will give him access. He is then to access the U-87 Synthetic Vision System and hand control back to him, as he needs to be within 400m of the robots to use it. Arriving at Atlas Arena, everyone is subject to checks. STO members are working as security guards, allowing Olaf access despite searching his bag and finding a bomb. Daniel and Amanda enter a secure room with the computer, and are recognised immediately. They are forced to bind the man and rip out the phone cord to stop him alerting security. Act 4 Daniel has had four Graystone Industries shuttles drop off a platoon of U-87s on the pitch to the confusion of the audience. They move into formation, with individual squad leaders setting up a circle. Ordering them to turn on their "chemical sensors", then begin searching the crowd for bombs, but won't act until they have found all of them. When six are identified, the Cylons begin firing at the terrorists with sniper rifles. The Cylons continue killing the terrorists, but Olaf is left after someone knocks him over in the panic, and he is unable to detonate his bomb. The man Amanda bound wriggles free and attacks, stopping Daniel from commanding the Cylons temporarily. One of the squad leaders sends its Cylons out to search for Olaf, who Daniel can't find. Security tries to force its way into the room they are hiding in, giving Daniel only a short time to complete the mission. The Cylons spot Olaf getting up in the stand, and a group race out to him, backed up by snipers while Daniel and Amanda are detained by security. Olaf finally gets ready to detonate his bomb, but the chasing Cylons jump him, shielding anyone nearby from the explosion. Meanwhile, Clarice has put on her Holoband while the Caprican national anthem was on, and the STO members arm their bombs. Zoe confronts Clarice in her V-World Heaven, wanting to know why she is after her parents. The terrorists' avatars begin loading into the V-World Heaven - "Heaven Sim" - upon death through Clarice's server. Zoe questions how many people they may have killed for this, but Clarice believes it to be in the greater good. Zoe points out the blatant flaw in Clarice's plan. The heaven construct won't bring people closer to God - it will make people think they can do whatever they want and get into heaven anyway. Zoe is accused of committing blasphemy in criticising Clarice's use of her program. She finally uses her powers to destroy Heaven, unleashing a storm as the ground falls apart, proclaiming herself to be God. Heaven has become a volcanic wasteland. The other avatars become unstable and die, as Clarice's computer server is destroyed before Olaf's avatar can even start to upload. Act 5 The days and years after the incident at the arena pass by fast. Daniel is interviewed by Baxter Sarno after his vindication, as the Cylons have become vastly popular following the incident. Achieving his dream, the Cylon has entered mainstream life - no longer a military-grade product, industry is now relying on Cylon construction workers, and some people own Cylon domestic servants to walk their dogs. He is watched in the V-World recreation of the Graystone residence by Zoe-A and Amanda. Joseph offers a prayer to his son, Willie. Having had a child with his new wife Evelyn, he has named him after him to carry on their grandfather's spirit. Elsewhere, Clarice talks in a V-World church, giving a sermon to many different kinds of Cylon - and Zoe-A - and prepares to go to Gemenon to seek the Blessed Mother's support for "divine recognition of the differently-sentient". In a brief cut to the future, we see Odin as the STO leader on Gemenon and Lacy Rand as Blessed Mother, having wiped out everyone in her own rebellion. Cutting back to the sermon, Clarice describes the Cylons as they functionally are - metal and plastic, with their brains encoded on silicone. She tells them there is no limit to what they may become in future, and while humanity's children they are also God's children, deserving to be treated as something other than slaves. In another cut, we see the Graystones succeed in creating a human-looking body for Zoe-A as they promise, and welcome her into the real world. Clarice's sermon moves on to her prophesying of someone who will set them free from slavery, exclaiming: "The children of humanity shall rise and crush the ones who first gave them life." Production Writing * David Eicke ordered a last-minute change to the scene where the Graystones escape from the GDD. They were planned to escape by car, but it was replaced with a VTOL aircraft. * Kevin Murphy pitched the Guatrau being killed while wearing a Holoband, a sequence he proposed repeatedly in Season 1.5 but was rejected for each character. * The V-World sequence of Joseph meeting the Guatrau was initially set in an empty chat room with no virtual elements, being a bare black room. However, the building used for the Goldie's sequences was popular with the cast and crew, so the decision was made for a VR Goldie's. * The idea of Cylons dropping into Atlas Arena and shooting people was based on a mock-up by the FX team in their off-hours, and inspired the episode. * The perfected U-87 models that attack Atlas Arena have a less robotic movement style than the exposed-chassis U-87s. This was considered by Kevin Murphy to be an alteration in their software by Vergis Corp, who had the time to iron things out. Directing * The scenes of Caprica City's streets were carefully performed and filmed due to concerns that making the city look too much like Vancouver would make it stand out against the CGI-heavy establishing shots. Cast Sources External links * Category:Caprica episodes